Pratt on Texas

The news of Texas covered today includes:Our Lone Star story of the day: The Texas Senate, still at work unlike the House, puts forth a compromise property tax relief bill that keeps the much larger relief to homestead homeowners and helps business by expanding the Franchise Tax exemption and pushes further school district M&O tax compression Abbott decided he favored at the last moment of the session. Will the House respond favorably? Abbott is still playing with words on the issue.The House’s version of work is Speaker Phelan creating a committee on property tax reduction! I kid you not! This is something one does to admit defeat or to do nothing. The House and its committees ARE the committees on the subject, it’s laughable that they need some new outside committee – unless of course they are admitting their own incompetence.And over at the Capitol-insider Quorum Report, both its founder and its editor echo what I have been telling you for years about Abbott and he works with(?) the Legislature. Your Texas political swami strikes again!Our Lone Star story of the day is sponsored by Allied Compliance Services providing the best service in DOT, business and personal drug and alcohol testing since 1995.Fresh news from the great Texas impeachment debacle.The highly accurate legislator right/left ranking guides are out. The Texas Fiscal Responsibility index is here and you can look up each legislator and the bills used in his ranking – nothing is hidden like the politicians would prefer. And here are the rankings for the House from Rice University’s Mark Jones – it’s amazing how closely this academic ranking the media accepts as reliable lines up, each session, with the Texans for Fiscal Responsibility index.And, other news of Texas.Listen on the radio, or station stream, at 5pm Central. Click for our radio and streaming affiliates.www.PrattonTexas.com

The news of Texas covered today includes:Our Lone Star story of the day: Governor Abbott goes has a veto spree over his inability to get school choice and his promised tax relief ideas passed in the regular session, and now a called session, of the Texas Legislature. It’s all legitimate political gamesmanship but Abbott has vetoed some very good bills that provide serious protections to us. Abbott’s conduct crosses into the line of political petulance and wrongly does harm to the people of Texas. Here is a full list of vetoed bills.Our Lone Star story of the day is sponsored by Allied Compliance Services providing the best service in DOT, business and personal drug and alcohol testing since 1995.Once elected and are part of the club, you don’t matter much anymore to many legislators and office holders. State Rep. Justin Holland of Rockkwall demonstrates such in his inherently self-contradictory Twitter screed about the Republican Party of Texas executive committee voting 53 to 11 to condemn the House impeachment of Attorney General Ken Paxton:“Nobody (in real TX politics) cares about the SREC or its chair. It’s a defunct organization and needs a total re-haul from the top down. Local parties are AWOL. It’s a mess. The good news is that they are all irrelevant and have no local/state respect. We can win without them.”My how some elected officials are bothered by criticism!By the way, SD 28’s SREC members, Lynda Hogue and Steve Evans, both of Lubbock, were among the 11 SREC members voting against the resolution.And, other news of Texas.Listen on the radio, or station stream, at 5pm Central. Click for our radio and streaming affiliates.www.PrattonTexas.com

The news of Texas covered today includes:Our Lone Star story of the day: Governor Abbott is harming Texans with his fit of vetoes and he’s doing it seemingly to ensure we get the smaller of the two property tax cuts that are on the legislative table! Abbott is wiping out key taxpayer protections in order get the Senate to go along with the House plan that does not deliver nearly as much property tax relief (about half) to the average homeowner. What’s the political upside of this?Our Lone Star story of the day is sponsored by Allied Compliance Services providing the best service in DOT, business and personal drug and alcohol testing since 1995.Much ballyhoo on the passing and signing of the Texas D.E.I. ban for college campuses but such is undeserved as the bill is without any enforcement. And as if to demonstrate such, Texas A&M hires a radical Leftist D.E.I. proponent to run its “journalism” program.Texas has a record number of people working; the May employment numbers are released. Oil and gas drilling rig count is unchanged in Texas from last week.And, other news of Texas.Listen on the radio, or station stream, at 5pm Central. Click for our radio and streaming affiliates.www.PrattonTexas.com

The news of Texas covered today includes:Our Lone Star story of the day: A full 88th Legislative Session review with state Senator Charles Perry, SD28.We talk water issues; juvenile justice reform; drug pricing work; assistance to rural counties for law enforcement; more support to non PUF university systems; residential treatment for offenders, and the Senate versus the House on property tax reform.On the impeachment trial, Senator Perry predicts the trial being held in the fall, after August and before the end of the calendar year.“It [the impeachment trial] will be before January, 1, almost certain but, I’m hoping September if we do it this fall,” said Senator Perry.Our Lone Star story of the day is sponsored by Allied Compliance Services providing the best service in DOT, business and personal drug and alcohol testing since 1995.And, other news of Texas.Listen on the radio, or station stream, at 5pm Central. Click for our radio and streaming affiliates.www.PrattonTexas.com

The news of Texas covered today includes:Our Lone Star story of the day: Governor Abbott has vetoed one of the most important taxpayer protection bills passedby the legislature and it appears to be an act of panic over his inability to fulfill, as of yet, his biggest campaign promise of record property tax relief – ironic almost beyond belief.As The Texan reports it:“In an apparent response to this property tax standoff, Abbott vetoed his third bill from the regular session on Tuesday: Senate Bill 2035 by Sen. Paul Bettencourt (R-Houston) that’d prohibit the kind of cheeky debt maneuver deployed by the City of Amarillo to finance a project voters had rejected two years earlier.“Bettencourt is the author of the Senate’s property tax plan and, other than Patrick, the most critical of the current compression-only proposal.”It appears the Governor, who has always had trouble working with the legislature, is in panic mode over headlines like this: DeSantis overshadowing Abbott as leading conservative ahead of the 2024 presidential election.Our Lone Star story of the day is sponsored by Allied Compliance Services providing the best service in DOT, business and personal drug and alcohol testing since 1995.In a deplorable decision by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, Ken Paxton’s criminal securities-related case will be heard in Democrat-dominated Harris County instead of his home county. On it’s own it is a terrible decision because it sets the idea that the state can venue shop in a criminal case as opposed to the defendant having the ability to be tried by his peers.The Dallas Morning News reported:“Judge Sharon Keller disagreed with the majority opinion.“The Court cites no case supporting its conclusion that a regional presiding judge can vicariously agree to allow the holding of court by a different district judge under the Texas Constitution. Because the law is unsettled, mandamus relief is inappropriate,” wrote Keller, who was joained in her dissent by Judge Mary Lou Keel.Judge Kevin Yeary also dissented.”Separately, the case is yet another example of how the wheels of justice were already turning and makes the House’s radical decision to use impeachment in the Paxton case improper. Substituting a bunch of politicians for police and judicial systems, that come with due process and appellate protections, is unwarranted in the Paxton case.I review more bills Governor Abbott has signed.And, other news of Texas.Listen on the radio, or station stream, at 5pm Central. Click for our radio and streaming affiliates.www.PrattonTexas.com

The news of Texas covered today includes:Our Lone Star story of the day: As the odd man out on property tax relief at the moment, Governor Abbott switches tactics and encourages compromise between the Senate and House to get a bill passed giving Texans significant property tax relief. It goes back to what I explained previously: It’s the governor who has the most to lose in not getting a tax relief bill passed, not the speaker or lieutenant governor.Also, I take a look at bills Governor Abbott has signed. Remember that he doesn’t have to sign a bill for it to become law. If he does not veto a bill and does not sign it after a certain number of days, it becomes law.Our Lone Star story of the day is sponsored by Allied Compliance Services providing the best service in DOT, business and personal drug and alcohol testing since 1995.After way, way, way too long, Governor Abbott finally says he’ll let the COVID Disaster Declaration end – Abbott took longer than any other Republican governor AND longer than the Leftist White House!South Padre Island opens Margaritaville Beach Resort, the first in Texas.And, other news of Texas.Listen on the radio, or station stream, at 5pm Central. Click for our radio and streaming affiliates.www.PrattonTexas.com

The news of Texas covered today includes:Our Lone Star story of the day: New developments in the Paxton impeachment debacle should be embarrassing to House members but won’t be. Members haven’t cared about process and doing it right throughout the sordid ordeal.Paxton’s Lawyers Take Legal Action Against Impeachment ProsecutorsBank records raise questions about home remodel in Attorney General Paxton’s impeachment – Yes, questions as to why this was not properly addressed by the House so-called investigators. But the important part of this story, glossed over by the writers, is this: “A different Austin contractor — not Cupertino Builders — received a federal grand jury subpoena in 2021 for records related to work on Paxton’s home that started in January 2020.” This shows, in yet another example, that law enforcement has long ago looked into this and found not enough evidence to take action.Our Lone Star story of the day is sponsored by Allied Compliance Services providing the best service in DOT, business and personal drug and alcohol testing since 1995.Univ. of North Texas funding an office that helps with pseudo sex change: University of North Texas Offers Students Chest Binders and Fake Genitalia.Much space-related business news, to see those stories and more visit https://behindtheblack.com/Pratt in Brownwood: How to join me at the Pecan Valley Republican Women’s meeting this Thursday, 15 June.And, other news of Texas.Listen on the radio, or station stream, at 5pm Central. Click for our radio and streaming affiliates.www.PrattonTexas.com

The news of Texas covered today includes:Our Lone Star story of the day:  State Rep. Brian Harrison, former Chief of Staff at Health and Human Services under President Trump, joins me to talk about how Texas House leadership, and many members, turned their backs on Texans on the issue of banning COVID vaccine mandates by private employers. Rep. Harrison is asking Governor Abbott to put the issue on one of his special session calls.Also on the subject of COVID, Odessa’s doctor, Richard Bartlett, has been proven right on his early treatment of WuFlu, treating inflamation, for which he was denounced by the medical establishment and censored by press outlets.Our Lone Star story of the day is sponsored by Allied Compliance Services providing the best service in DOT, business and personal drug and alcohol testing since 1995.What a letdown for those frothing at the mouth to get Ken Paxton. Today’s arraignment on federal charges of Nate Paul, the man the Texas press repeatedly calls central to Paxton’s impeachment, found the FBI charging him with only 8 charges all relating to “overstating his assets and understating his liabilities while seeking loans.” The FBI has been working Paul since 2019 and that itself is at the center of Paul’s seeking help from the Office of Attorney General. These are charges that almost any real estate developer could be charged with from time to time and, in fact, Trump has been accused of such as have many others. Not much to show, so far, for years of FBI investigation and certainly nothing to do with Paxton in this latest move by the Biden DOJ.Texas oil and gas rig count drops big again this week.Border news: Abbott orders a 1000 foot floating barrier for the Rio Grande.And, other news of Texas.Listen on the radio, or station stream, at 5pm Central. Click for our radio and streaming affiliates.www.PrattonTexas.com

The news of Texas covered today includes:Our Lone Star story of the day: R.I.P. Pat Robertson, leaves this life aged 93-year. The AP obituary is surprisingly good; not what you’d expect given its bias against of conservatives and Christians. I have much to say on Robertson including that I think he, as much as anyone else, is responsible for reawakening Christians to the idea that their faith should openly and strongly inform their political, secular decisions. This tide turning was needed because the 1950’s, ’60’s, and ’70’s were decades of indoctrination that religion was not to play a role in our politics.Our Lone Star story of the day is sponsored by Allied Compliance Services providing the best service in DOT, business and personal drug and alcohol testing since 1995.Impeachment news: Ken Paxton lawyer: AG will ‘never be convicted’ in Senate impeachment trial. Sadly that isn’t so certain as impeachment is purely a political act of opinion; despite the “trial” it doesn’t require any evidence or a commitment to follow any evidence on behalf of senators.Border and immigration news.Why the Texas House did not property adjourn for the first called session when it took its toys and went home leaving taxpayers without tax relief.Meanwhile, showing where leaderships true priorities were, they got the crony corporate giveaway program, replacing the expired Chapter 313, done and Governor Abbott signed it in a closed ceremony. That got that done in the last moments of the session but couldn’t bother with tax relief! It’s better that 313 but its a program we should not have.And, other news of Texas.Listen on the radio, or station stream, at 5pm Central. Click for our radio and streaming affiliates.www.PrattonTexas.com

The news of Texas covered today includes:Our Lone Star story of the day: Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick challenges Governor Greg Abbott to a Lincoln-Douglas Debate on which is the better method of delivering property tax relief – Abbott deflects. Meanwhile Patrick and the Senate remain in special session waiting for the petulant House leadership to come back to Austin to work on the people’s business. House staying home will also kill key border security bills.Our Lone Star story of the day is sponsored by Allied Compliance Services providing the best service in DOT, business and personal drug and alcohol testing since 1995.The impeachment “show” gets more “star power:” Tony Buzbee to work the show trial on behalf of Attorney General Ken Paxton.Local sales tax receipt numbers: June report.How the Biden Administration is hiding the number of illegal border crossings – by just declaring many to not be illegal!FACT CHECK: DHS Touts Drop in Migrant Encounters After Title 42, Ushers 50K in Through ‘Lawful Pathways’US Expands Slots for Asylum App at Land Crossings as Demand Overwhelms SupplyAnd then there is this: Migrants Attempt Border Rush at Texas Port of Entry.Big stack of local government stories (with plenty of stench:)Fort Worth Mayor Ends Controversial Program Encouraging Kids to Read LGBTQ BooksIn Godley, Texas, a mayor’s actions lead to bogus arrest of a council memberMayor Pushes ‘Pride’ in Rural Central Texas (Taylor)Harris Co. Judge Lina Hidalgo drops F-bomb during fiery court exchangeHarris County moves to sue state of Texas over election billHarris Co. judge suggests illegal immigrants could receive universal basic incomeAnd, other news of Texas.Listen on the radio, or station stream, at 5pm Central. Click for our radio and streaming affiliates.www.PrattonTexas.com